We reported last week that Best Buy was taking preorders for the new Motorola Devour, but we didn’t have a retail price at the time. It was later revealed that Verizon would offer the phone for $149 (with 2 year contract), but we now know Best Buy will sell the Devour for $99 (w/ 2yr contract).

Best Buy will also lower the price of the HTC Droid Eris to free (w/ contract) and the Motorola Droid will be sold for $99 (w/ contract).

So customers can now purchase the Devour and Droid for the same price on contract. Why anyone would choose the Devour over the Droid is besides me, but at least they have the choice.

The Droid offers the following advantages over the Devour:

Android 2.x (vs Android 1.6)

Stock Android (vs Motoblur)

3.7 inch display (vs 3.1 inch)

Faster TI OMAP3430 processor (vs Qualcomm MSM7627)

5 megapixel camera (vs 3 MP)

16 GB microSD card (vs 8 GB)

The Devour really is a cool looking phone, but I can think of zero reasons to recommend it over the Droid.

Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He resides in Dallas and carries the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One as his daily devices. Ask him a question on Twitter or Google+ and he is likely to respond. | Ethics statement

Most Tweeted This Week

That pricing structure is confusing. Why would they make it like that? No one in their sane mind would pick anything but the Droid in that scenario. Perhaps that’s the point though, maybe it’s a push to get more Droids out there for some reason.

Seriously though, I have a feeling that Motorola really wants to push its Motoblur phones. It differentiates them from other phone makers. By making it the same price, they essentially tell the consumer: It’s just as good!
But it’s not. Don’t buy one.

I don’t think it’s fair to list stock Android as an advantage to MotoBlur.

Certainly that it is Android 1.6 is a disadvantage, but you mentioned that already in the first bullet.

It’s probably more fair to call motoblur an advantage over stock android. Whether or not you prefer it is up to you.
If you disagree, please explain how stock android(1.6) has any advantage over motoblur(1.6).

disclaimer: i personally prefer stock android over motoblur, and the droid over the devour.

[...] the carrier’s second Motorola Android phone and their first to feature Motoblur. The phone is now available exclusively at Best Buy for $99 (with 2 year contract) with a full launch in all channels on March [...]

For me, the Devour is an improvement on some Droid features. The keyboard is way better than the Droid’s flat tiles.

The optical navigation key acts like a touch pad on a laptop, makes for finer navigation and selection. I found on touch screen I am accidentally selecting links on web pages or call contacts, leading to links to web pages you didn’t want to go to or calls initiated that you didn’t intend.

The call quality is improved and it holds onto a signal well even with NO bars or one bar signal strength.

Battery life is still an issue if you use GPS or Internet much. Droid has 1300 mAh, Devour 1390mAh. Both need at least double that.

Maybe one of the other 19 Android based phones coming out this year will improve on some of Droid’s physical drawbacks that you read about in customer reviews. Too bad we are all stuck with two year committments on the equipment we had to purchase today.